One Kiss
by Golden Arms
Summary: Sakura had planned to get Sasuke's first kiss, but Naruto ruined that for her. What if he tried to salvage Sakura's goal instead? A Naruto Oneshot.


_**Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishomoto. All rights reserved.**_

**One Kiss**

_A Naruto Oneshot Fanfic_

Naruto was a dead man. He _knew_ he was dead without anyone telling him. And yet, he couldn't help but listen to the small waves of whispering rushing through the crowd of his peers as they all suddenly were repelled to their desks, leaving him with an unconscious Sakura.

His blue eyes lighted upon her prone form, and he turned blue in fear. Sakura was going to murder him. Absolutely demolish him where he stood, once she came to. Quickly, he ducked down and picked her up, drawing more murmurs and intense stares. Even Sasuke was looking at him in a mixture of dread and horror.

He knew that Naruto was a dead man, too. And that worried the blond more than anything if _Sasuke_ was giving a damn about him now.

Sweat coursed down the class idiot's face as he carefully, gingerly propped Sakura in her desk between him and Sasuke. Might as well grant her that one small favor. He was not going to live to see another day after this anyway.

And then, Sakura moaned softly. Her eyes flickered open as if in a deep sleep. Seeing herself placed between Naruto and Sasuke, she she then noticed that everyone was paying her a _lot_ more attention. Even Ino-Pig, despite seeing Sasuke was right there beside her. And then, the memories flooded her mind's eye with startling clarity.

Her breath caught as she reviewed her memories, her heart beating faster and faster. Eyes cutting to Naruto, it was all he could do to cover up as if sight alone was enough to rip him in half.

"Naruto..."

"Sorry! I didn't want that bastard's kiss and I just panicked and-- I'm sorry! I'm sorry!! Believe it!!" He never unfurled from his self-defense ball, waiting for the pain to come down onto him.

So were everyone else, so wrapped up in the formulating train wreck, that they never noticed Iruka-sensei come in till he shouted at the top of his lungs. Thirty twelve-year olds screamed in surprise and rapidly scrambled for their various chairs and sat perfectly organized, as if nothing happened. Even Naruto straightened himself up, though keeping himself a little withdrawn.

The scarred chunin sighed. "Kids, today..." He was about to go on but he caught Sakura sneaking glimpses at his favorite student, half-hidden stares. He noticed a tiny reddening of her cheeks, but decided to bring up the matter of team selection. Inwardly smiling, Iruka figured that if he was seeing what he was seeing, Naruto would be a VERY happy genin.

* * *

Naruto was going to die.

He and Sakura were on the same team. Along with Sasuke, but he didn't really care about the bastard at the moment. No, he was very much concerned about Sakura, or for the matter how quickly he was going to die at her hands. Soon as Iruka let them all go for lunch, Naruto bolted out of the room in a bout of speed not seen even in jonin.

He had to hide, and _fast_! Maybe wait out her murderous rage, so she only beat him within an inch of his life.

Meanwhile, Sakura was dumbstruck as she had out a hand to catch the blond by his shoulder. Looking around the room, all eyes, even Sasuke's, were locked onto her in some sort of morbid fascination.

"What?" she asked in a small voice, highly disturbed at the intensity of the stares she was being subjected to.

Without waiting for a response, Sakura got up and ran out the door, trying to get away from the stares. She didn't miss the sudden activity of chairs suddenly moving and smashing into desks and the heard of feet tromping their way after her. The pink-haired girl groaned in frustration.

"Why is everyone so fixated on me all of a sudden?" She had to swap places with a desk in another classroom to throw them off her trail. She wanted to be alone, and she damn well need time to _think_. Right now, she wasn't even certain what her memories told her was even real, but if they were, Naruto had a lot of explaining to do.

Starting with who had _he_ been practicing with to kiss that good.

Her cheeks burned lightly thinking about it. Of all things, Naruto had kissed Sasuke, robbing her of her goal of getting Sasuke's first kiss. Sure, in retrospect, it was a mistake, but at that moment, she didn't see it that way, and was intent on pounding some common courtesy into the troublemaking blond.

Then he did the unthinkable and gave her the kiss. By kissing her full on the mouth.

The next thing she remembered was sitting up in the desk between Naruto and Sasuke and twenty-eight extra eyes looking in on her for a reaction. Naruto scared witless while Sasuke had that odd look in his eye. Like throwing a kunai at a target, only for someone to step in the way, and watching in that sick horrible way that keeps you from looking away as you know what's going to happen next.

She had to find Naruto.

* * *

After everyone returned to class, no one had time to figure out whether or not Naruto would die, as soon jonin instructors began appearing to take their teams to the field for the afternoon. Naruto managed to sneak into the classroom just after the door closed, displaying the most amazing set of infiltration skills to date. Not even Iruka knew that he was there until he started to comment on who had not come back from the lunch break.

At first, Naruto figured their instructor would show up soon, and they'll have gotten this entire thing over with and Naruto could wait out Hurricane Sakura in the relative safety of his apartment complex. However, the hours crawled by, as it was only him, Sakura, and Sasuke alone in classroom.

At this, Sakura looked over at Sasuke, who seemed disinterested in everything now, then to Naruto, who took up a place on the far side of the room near the top, where there was conveniently open window near his position. The pink-haired girl frowned sadly. Taking another glance at Sasuke, she inhaled deeply, then let her breath out slowly through her mouth.

"Naruto?"

"Heh?" the blond nearly jumped out of his skin. "Me?"

"Yeah..." She bit off the urge to be annoyed with his suddenly reticent behavior; after all, he had a right to it at the moment. "How about you..." A quirk of her mouth, fishing around for the right words. "Come sit here... with the rest of your team, huh?"

Eyes wide, Naruto took a few moments to chew on that. Had it been any other time, Naruto would have been all over Sakura's offer. Right now, though, he only reluctantly moved down the stairs, feeling much like how he'd imagine the fox imprisoned in his body to feel after the Fourth Hokage sealed him.

Sakura had to smile, watching how jerky his moments were. "I'm not going to hit you or anything..."

"Really?" he asked, wincing a little, expecting this olive branch to end in a fist.

"Really..." she said, carefully schooling herself to not get angry. Unfortunately, it was taking her every last bit of training to NOT hit him for doubting her in the first place. "I just--"

The classroom door opened then. All heads swiveled towards it as a masked man with a huge stack of silver hair and his forehead protector slant over his left eye entered.

The jonin instructor looked at the three students before him. "Well, based on my first impressions, you're all as good as dead."

Everyone stumbled backward mentally at the sudden analysis.

"Meet me on the roof." Making a sign, the scarecrow ninja vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving behind three confused genin.

* * *

"Now, I'd like for you all to tell us a little bit about yourselves," the jonin instructor said, seated againt the guard rail of the building.

"Like what?" Sakura, who was seated between Sasuke and Naruto, asked.

"You know, your favorite things, things you hate, dreams, ambitions, hobbies, things like that. The usual stuff."

"W-well, why don't you show us how it's done, sensei?" Naruto piped up, glancing at Sakura for a moment.

"Yeah, you're like, a complete stranger to us... a mystery."

"Oh... me? My name is Kakashi Hatake. I'm the kind of person doesn't like talking about his likes and dislikes. My dreams for the future are none of your business... but anyway, I have lots of hobbies..."

All three genin sweated lightly.

"Hey..." Sakura turned to Naruto, the annoyance for the jonin clearly written on her face. "He said a lot, but all we really learned was his name."

"Tell me about it..." the blond said in return.

"Now, tell me about yourselves," Kakashi spoke, indicating Naruto on his right.

"Okay! My name's Naruto Uzumaki, and I like ramen! I like it better when Iruka-sensei treats me to ramen at the Ichiraku Noodle Stand. What I hate is three-minute wait after I pour in the boiling water. My dream is--"

Kakashi was about to tune out the rest of the kid's rant when suddenly the blond announced with absolute clarity "--to become a better ninja that even the Hokage and all the villagers will have to finally acknowledge my existence at last!"

The scarecrow jonin seemed mildly impressed with the strength of his resolve. That'll be tested tomorrow, of that, there was no doubt. Ignoring his hobbies, he turned to Sakura, who seemed to have zoned out, looking at Naruto with a look of adoration. It was something that made Kakashi chuckle inwardly, noting that the youngest Uchiha seemed to be focusing more on disavowing the two's existence. "Your turn, young lady."

Snapped out of her daydream, Sakura blushed. "Um, well... what I like..." her mind was starting to point towards Sasuke, but for some reason, everything about him was suddenly enveloped in a fog. "I... really don't want to talk about those things... what I hate..." Instinctively, her first response was supposed to be Naruto, but again, the fog struck him from the slate of her mind. "Uh, I hate... um, let's skip that for now..." Sakura frowned as her mind refused to give her the normal answers she would have fired off with certainty. Looking out of the corner of her eye, she could see Naruto wiping his brow in relief after bypassing the hate part. It made her giggle a little. "Well, let's just forget about all that stuff for right now, sensei?" She looked up to the man with a plea in her eyes.

He shrugged absently, turning his look to the final genin of the group. As Sasuke went to explain himself, Sakura couldn't help but to look at Naruto in a new light. She really had to figure out where did he learn to kiss like that.

* * *

"Okay, this really sucks!" Naruto grumbled, kicking a rock as he made his way home. Having to fight for the right graduate... he had just _done_ that with Mizuki! What the crap!

"Hey, Naruto!"

He froze stock-still. "Sakura?"

He turned around to see the pink-haired girl standing a few feet away from him, an unreadable look on her face.

"What is it?"

"Well, Naruto, I was wondering something... about this morning at class?"

His eyes widened in horror. The Pink Death had finally come for him.

"Wh-wh-what about th-this morning?" He tried desperately to be cool, nonchalant. However, he was going to flee at the first movement.

And it was an uncomfortably long wait between them. Sakura couldn't bring herself to say it, and Naruto was becoming increasingly tense.

Then, she just blurted it out. "Where did you learn to kiss so well?"

The fuse burned itself out on Naruto's weirdness meter. "...huh?"

She quickly clasped her hand over her mouth, eyes darting around to make certain no one she knew actually heard her say that. In other words, she stopped to make certain the street was clear. Then she closed the distance, he being too overwhelmed to run away at the moment. "I mean, you just... kissed me... like... where did you learn to kiss like that?"

"Uh, I dunno. I just... did... believe it."

Another look around, then she inched in closer. "Could you...?" She started to match the shade of her hair.

Despite the messages his brain was surprisingly quick to decode for him, he was entirely reluctant to follow through. "But, I thought..."

"Please?"

The look on her face killed his resistance.

It was with a little reluctance that he complied, kissing her.

And that was when Inner Sakura discovered that she just landed herself an undiscovered gold mine of romantic intentions. Even her daydreams about Sasuke paled in comparison.

Pulling away, Naruto blinked. "Um..."

She looked away, another blush caressing her features. "Would you... like to... practice... with me tonight...?"

The replaced fuse in his weirdness meter blew again. "Huh?"

"I mean, for tomorrow!" she nearly screamed. "I mean... Kakashi-sensei seems so... tough, and... well, I jst thought it'd be nice if... you know, we stood a better chance... together?" She looked up at him at that.

The shock washed out of his system, and Naruto looked at the girl he had a crush on for the longest time in a completely new light. "Really?"

She nodded, smiling a bit brighter. "Believe it."

Now, the fear totally gone, he grinned. "All right! Kakashi-sensei won't know what hit him, believe it!"

Together, they started walking off for his apartment. Naruto with his arms behind his head, and Sakura stealing secretive glances at him, blushing and smiling.

* * *

_One Week Later_

"Hey, Ino-chan!"

"Hm?" The blonde girl looked up from her tending of the flowers. "Forehead?" Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What's with the -chan stuff all of a sudden?"

Sakura just smiled a bit, not even getting upset the slightest. "Well, Ino-chan, I was thinking about it a lot, and... I don't really care about this rivalry for Sasuke. I'd rather just be friends again."

Ino's weirdness meter blew a fuse. "Say what!"

The girl with the cotton candy hair grinned. "I, uh, found someone else who's a lot cooler, anyway."

"Huh? Cooler than... Sasuke?" Snapping her head back and forth, Ino growled. "All right, Forehead, what kind of trick is this!"

"No trick, Ino-chan. Just... realizing there are a lot more important things than just fighting over a stupid guy like Sasuke."

The fuse to Ino's sanity threatened to melt. "Are you feeling all right, Sakura? I mean, you just called Sasuke a--"

She grinned. "Yeah, he _is_ a stupid guy. Almost caused us not to pass our exam with Kakashi-sensei. I mean, who wants to be hung up on a selfish brat like him?"

Ino just choose to goggle at Sasuke. "Kai!" she suddenly shouted, startling her former rival.

"What are you doing?"

Ino looked at Sakura, who was wearing the "patience is wearing thin" expression, then REALLY looked at her as if for the first time. "You're not under any sort of mind-control, are you?"

"No! Geez, can't a girl be allowed to change her mind about the kind of guy she likes?"

"S-sorry, Sakura, I'm just... wow, what the hell changed your mind in the first place?"

A secretive smile creased the pink-haired girl's face. "Not. Gonna tell..."

Now Ino got upset. "What kind of mess is that! You want to be friends, but you don't wanna--"

"I'll tell you, soon as you start calling me your friend again." She held out her arms. "Friends?"

It was right then that Ino wondered if she had even known the girl standing before her. Slowly a smile removed the doubt and frustration she was feeling, and let her just accept things as they were, forgetting about everything else for right now. Before she thought it, her arms were bound around her former-now-re-established best friend again, squeezing tightly as she was being held.

"Friends, Sakura-chan."

* * *

_One Month Later_

"Naruchan... are you really bringing Sasuke over?"

Naruto sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Yeah, Sakura-chan, believe it."

"But he's such a basta--mmphf..."

Naruto slowly pulled back, looking at the small blissful expression momentarily control her. He sighed mentally, seeing how Saskue must have been suffering with almost every girl wanting after him in the Academy.

Groaning, Naruto returned to reading one of the notes he and Sakura had been poring over for a new ninjutsu he was making. Should have never kissed her, he thought darkly. Should have never, ever,_ ever! _have kissed her...

END

A/N: This is to be my first Naruto posting. A "what if" that made me want to do something really cool, but in the end, the story lead me down this way. Instead of a pure relationship scheme, it would be a lot more about being friendly and not thinking things through. In the end, it's just s mess, but I don't really see how it oculd be fixed, so what the heck, let's just sit it up here. And I've been meaning to do some writing for a long time now. I hope some of you don't kill me for it, though.


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